Melanie Wagor is set to produce and direct a new feature film Faux Pas: The Story of John Gately Downey.

The Executive Producer is Patrick Gurrola who owns the Downieville Gold Nugget #29 of 100 pieces of gold found during a shipwreck recovery of the SS Central America is set to EP the project through A24 distribution. These gold units were acquired by America’s Hero: Tommy Thompson when deep sea diving a shipwreck recovery. Tommy Thompson is currently serving a contempt of court charge in Ohio Federal Penitentiary for refusing to share where 500 gold coins were hidden that he recovered during a deep-sea dive in 1989. Thompson has currently served five years in this Federal Penitentiary, in contempt of court regarding this case.

The biopic movie will tell the life story of John Gately Downey (June 24, 1827 – March 1, 1894). Downey is a heroic citizen of California, an Irish American politician and the seventh Governor of California from 1860 to 1862. He was the first governor of California born outside the United States and the first to live in Southern California.

Downey was born on June 24, 1827, in the townland of Castlesampson, Taughmaconnell, County Roscommon, Ireland, to Denis Downey and Bridget Gately. Castlesampson is 12 kilometres west of the town of Athlone. He emigrated with his family at the age of 14 to the United States in 1842, before the famine years. Settling in Charles County, Maryland. Dwindling family finances forced him to halt his education at age 16 and start working toward independence. He apprenticed at an apothecary in Washington, D.C. until 1846.

Downey relocated to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he worked as a druggist. Like many who heard about the California Gold Rush, he went to the West Coast of the United States. He stopped along the way at Vicksburg, Mississippi; then Havana, Cuba and finally New Orleans, Louisiana. By 1849, he had arrived in California, briefly prospecting in Grass Valley before finding a job at a drugstore in San Francisco.

Downey soon moved to Los Angeles and was elected for a one-year term to the Los Angeles Common Council in May 1852 and again in May 1856. He resigned from the council in December 1856.

A Lecompton Democrat in the Kansas Territory, Downey was elected as a member of the California State Assembly, the lower house of the State Legislature, for the 1st District, serving from 1856 to 1857. In the 1859 general elections, he was elected lieutenant governor, overcoming the split within the Democratic Party between Lecompton and Anti-Lecompton Democrats, as well as fending off a challenge from the infant Republican Party.

Downey returned to Southern California after leaving politics. In 1871, he helped found Farmers and Merchants Bank, the first successful bank in Los Angeles, with Isaias W. Hellman, a banker, philanthropist and future president of Wells Fargo.
In 1879, Downey joined some public-spirited citizens led by Judge Robert Maclay Widney, in laying the groundwork for the University of Southern California, the first university in the region. When Widney formed a board of trustees, he secured a donation of 308 lots of land from three prominent members of the community: Ozro W. Childs, a Protestant horticulturist; Hellman, a German-Jew; and Downey. The gift provided land for a campus as well as a source of endowment, the seeds of financial support for the nascent institution. Downey Street on the USC campus is named after him.

Production is set to start in September of 2025. Wagor will direct and produce this independent feature film. Tommy Thompson will appear in federal prison in the first 15 mins of the movie. The younger John Gately Downey will be played by Owen Wilson joining the older Downey as Woody Harrilson as a welcome addition to the cast. Please reach out to CAA for more information on this project.